Does anyone have solar polar for their house or business?

[jcrew2001]

I was watching a PBS special "design e2" and it was really cool. The govt can give you tax breaks on installing solar panels. There were also other segments about reusing and building green buidlings. Germany has a 20 year fixed rate for anyone installing solar power to sell back to the grid - that's free money!

Do u guys think solar is viable? Whole Foods and Walmart are starting to put up panels on their roofs.

[Fridays Child]

1. Solar polar?

Is that a typo? ;)

[Bobbieo]

2. I've had a solar water heater on my roof for years.,now.

[durrrty libby]

5. I'd love to know more about that

[Longhorn]

8. We do, too.

Our house was all electric when we bought it more than 11 years ago so the solar panels really helped with utility bills. Since then, we've added propane heat.

[Cleita]

3. DH and I had solar panels on our trailer, which enabled us

to have electricity out in the woods. Since solar has improved a whole lot since then I think it's very viable as an energy source especially in the south west where we get lots of sun, we could probably produce enough electricity if we put solar panels on every building around and maybe even enough extra to sell to other states that don't have as much sun. In conjunction with traditional ways of producing electricity it probably would take the burden off those sources so that they would act more like a backup system to the solar system.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. saw that show a few weeks ago. the website for it is interesting, but I

can't remember the name of the show or site

well worth looking into.

Europe, Germany, in particular, are WAY ahead of us.

they're encouraging people to generate enough of their own electricity to be able to turn it back into the grid when they're generating more than they use

[scarletwoman]

6. Solar POLAR? Might wanna fix that typo... (nt)

[greenman3610]

7. Al Gore's new panels

he had to wait for a zoning change in his neighborhood

[Kali]

9. I know a few people that do.

It's not quite as easy as being hooked up to the grid, but getting much better than the early days.

There is a (woman owned) business in Tucson. The Solar Store. http://www.solarstore.com/

Lots more in the google.

[silverweb]

10. I wish!

I can't afford solar and I rent. What I am seriously considering is _these_, which would do very well in the coastal breeze here.

They're very inexpensive compared to solar panels and by all appearances should be pretty easily transferrable if I were to move.

[caligirl]

11. Ahhh

[sandnsea]

12. They make solar shingles now too

And they even work in filtered shade, and cloudy climates like England. I cannot figure out why we aren't making more progress with solar.